This time, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, who didn’t poll well enough to make the main stage in August, joins the fray along with billionaire GOP front-runner Donald Trump, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Sen. For questions, contact Sally Morrow.
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Follow along live with the 2016 Republican presidential debates at the Reagan Presidential Library on Wednesday, September 16, as American-Statesman reporters and other political writers and pundits tweet through the night. They all profess an attachment to God but they want to duke it out about how much that matters in public policy.
As the countdown to the debate winds down, Donald Trump still leads, Dr. Ben Carson is gaining and Carly Fiorina has made the main stage.
Trump has mocked Bush as being “low-energy” but the well-funded Bush has begun to hit back.
“I think she’s got a handsome face, and I think she’s a lovely woman”, Trump said. “That I can tell you“. Marco Rubio and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush were among the first to do their practice runs.
Republican voters nationwide continue to back Trump in large numbers, climbing from 23% support in the last CBS poll, conducted before the Fox News debate last month, to 27% in the poll out Tuesday. Rand Paul, R-Ky., isn’t shy about continuing his aggressive style from the first debate.
Trump went on to attack Bush and other candidates’ supposed deference to lobbyists and special interests.
“I never attacked him on his looks, and believe me there is plenty of subject matter right there”, Trump responded, drawing big laughs in the press area.
According to the Real Clear Politics average, Trump, Carson and Fiorina take up 54 percent of the support at this point from primary voters.
Their sparring intensified over the past week after Rolling Stone published an interview with Trump in which he dismissed Fiorina by saying, “Look at that face!”
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As the world prepares to watch the second GOP debate on Wednesday, the candidates are lining up in a battle between the “outsiders” and “the establishment”.
